Sydney arrived by tram, thanks to a team bus malfunction, and went home by limousine. Having broken the Magpies' six-year, 11-game hold over them in last year's preliminary final, the Swans now seem intent on imposing a spell of their own. This was the reigning premiers' most complete performance of a year of slow gathering, and in many ways Collingwood's most abject defeat in a year of often stuttering performances. Decimation by injury is no explanation; the Swans also had cornerstone players out.

It might yet go down as an even more infamous night. Late in the last quarter, Adam Goodes, who had put in yet another irresistible performance, gesticulated his disgust to a knot of Magpie supporters.

After the game, Goodes' anger was still palpable. More will emerge. It made for a distasteful start to indigenous round.

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Collingwood brings out Sydney's miserly best; that much is clear. The defining phenomenon of this encounter was the total breakdown of the Magpies' forward line.

It was ill-balanced from the start, and the Swans knew that if they contained Travis Cloke, who was double-teamed most of the night, it would leave a black hole.

Jude Bolton battles Nick Maxwell. Photo: Sebastian Costanzo

It took the Magpies three quarters to score what the Swans did in the first. Their four last-quarter goals were consolations. The paucity of opportunity merely reflected the burden of play in midfield, where the Swans run, spread and intensity reduced the Magpies at times to a rabble.

At the other end, the Swans did themselves an injustice with their profligacy. Again, the scoreboard deceives; at least three times, the Swans kicked out on the full. They could and should have turned this into a rout.

The night had begun more nobly than it ended, with a hug by proxy captains Lewis Jetta and Andrew Krakouer. Varying tactics of other weeks, neither team began with a dedicated tagger; this one would be sorted out on its merits. Sydney swarmed all over Collingwood from the start, but was oddly extravagant around goal. Goodes, of all people, missed two sitters. At the other end, Collingwood, from limited chances, kicked three goals from leads and marks. It was a strength that became a weakness when it became clear that the Magpies had no plan B.

The stoppages were ferociously contested, but Sydney's run and spread made it always the more threatening team. In the second quarter, the Swans made good that threat, shredding Collingwood with piercing football on the rebound. Sydney made the lumbering and ponderous Magpies look outnumbered at both ends of the ground, no mean feat on the MCG. At half-time, the Swans led in uncontested possession by 130-92. Collingwood led the tackle count 58-43, but that an indication only of the remedial work it was forced to perform.

Fittingly in indigenous round, Goodes bobbed up in every play. Collingwood tried to tighten up, detailing Macaffer to Kennedy, but in the meantime, unsung Craig Bird had blotted Dane Swan out of the game. Again, only Sydney's profligacy near goal spared the Magpies; Morton, twice, was culpably lax. Three goal to none was right as a ratio, but meagre as a return for the Swans. Collingwood went goal-less for a quarter and a half.

The last quarter was footnotes. The match finished on an apt note when Swans' veteran Jude Bolton threaded a goal after the final siren.

What was beyond the Magpies all night long, the Swans could do even as an encore.

NO GOODES ANSWER

Adam Goodes had a range of opponents - Nick Maxwell, Jordan Russell and Harry O'Brien among them - all of them rotating on and off the dual Brownlow medallist when he went forward or back. But none of them had any significant effect. Goodes copped a knee in the quad in the first term but it did little to slow him up as he was the dominant player on the field. Goodes was either too strong in the pack or too mobile getting up and down the ground, particularly exploiting the open field the Swans like to run in to towards goal.

BATTLE OF THE BIRD

In a game of Swans and Magpies a Bird beat a Swan, but the Swans beat the Magpies. Craig Bird was tasked Dane Swan early on and Bird did an excellent job shutting him down. Swan had eight touches to half-time, of his five kicks four were rated clangers or ineffective. After half-time Swan had a range of others, like Luke Parker and Kieren Jack.

EXPERIENCE COUNTS

It was Sydney's elder statesmen that led the way, with Goodes, Ryan O'Keefe, Jarred McVeigh and Nick Malceski all racking up 30 or more disposals. O'Keefe's tackling was a highlight, applying a game-high 14.

18 comments so far

Pies were all slow. Never recovered from being run ragged by the Cats.

Commenter

2 point win

Date and time

May 25, 2013, 8:42AM

A beautiful night, one that shows the Swans are on the prowl again this year. (I know, I know, Swans prowling?)But I still feel GOOD!!!No sweeter victory than over the over-painted, inflated egos of the Maggies!

Commenter

Peter

Location

Sydney

Date and time

May 25, 2013, 8:56AM

"No sweeter victory"No sweeter comment than the one that shows how deep the collingwood fc has infiltrated the psychic of humanity. There are some things in sport that transcends winning and losing ........

Commenter

CGC

Date and time

May 25, 2013, 9:41PM

Nick Maxwell may well hold the title of premiership captain, but so does Bruce Monteath from Richmond's 1980 premiership. Both players are lucky. Maxwell is so bad that Collingwood should retire him.

Commenter

manny

Location

willowgrove sth

Date and time

May 25, 2013, 9:17AM

Monteath was actually a very good player who played injured that whole season and had to retire soon after. Better comparisons may be Tony Shaw and Mike Brearley.

Commenter

catsfan

Location

kardinia

Date and time

May 25, 2013, 1:15PM

I do not wish to deny the Swans glory from their great win, but it is important to allow for the consideration that the Pies were still recovering from the fierce contest against the Cats the previous week and were never able to get their legs going as they should. A similar effect happened the previous week where both Geelong and Essendon were flat after a mighty tussle against each other the week before.The speed and effort required by teams to run out four quarters the way the game is played at the moment, impacts on their performance the following game (even moreso when there is only a six day turnaround). The way teams squads are created has to be changed and the need to develop 10 or more midfield players that can be rotated not only during the match but interchanged from one game to the next as they do in Europe for the Champions league. Teams like Bayern M and Man U have a squad to play their Saturday game and a significantly different squad for the mid week game. Geelong are clearly trying to do this with rotations of players from one match to the next.

Commenter

topcatjim

Date and time

May 25, 2013, 9:25AM

Jim we played a draw last week against a side that will be top eight if not top four. The Cats might have been 'tired' as you say but then again it might be that Collingwood just match up well on the Cats. a good example of that is how Cats match up on Hawks. We match up well on Pies and seem to know how to beat them for some reason. We were their whipping team for so long but once we learned how to break them we just do it by rote now. I was very surprised with the intensity of our side last night. We have not played with any form of intensity or skill level all season and last night we brought a huge intensity and skill level to the table. We have shown spurts of both in some games but nothing sustained until yesterday. It is as tough we saved it all up for the Pies, which I don't mind but I would like a bit of consistency. I think they made some bad decisions at the selection table and they underestimated our mids. They were destroyed in the mids last night. Birdie again did a job on Swan, Pendelbury was negated by not allowing him to get disposals away and our mids played off the mistakes. I have not been impressed with the Swans so far but I haven't been impressed with Pies either and I think their win against Cats is more luck of the match ups than anything.

Commenter

A. Pincombe

Location

Lilyfield

Date and time

May 25, 2013, 12:35PM

Collingwood's 2nd and 3rd quarter aggregate score was their lowest against Sydney/Sth. Melbourne since 1915, yet beating the Magpies in all 4 quarters remains elusive for the Swans.The last time they did it was when the spoiled the reigning premier's flag-raising day at Victoria Park in round 1 of 1959.

Commenter

Michael Rogers

Location

Wagga Wagga

Date and time

May 25, 2013, 9:31AM

How very sad to see a 14 year old girl racially abuse a superstar of the game. Says volumes of some of our kids these days but unfortunately much more about a lot of "Parents!". Some of these parents really should look up the meaning of that word.

Commenter

Bojangles

Date and time

May 25, 2013, 9:50AM

Now is the time for the majority out there to stop blaming injuries and look to the elephant in the room which is a non existent game plan. Are the players confused because I certainly am. Every week I see a mishmash of styles and unfortunately we are not good enough in all of them. The honeymoon is over Nathan.